Dark Ages Palace Uncovered At Site Closely Linked To The Legend Of King Arthur

The "Gallos" sculpture at the site of&nbsp;Tintagel Castle. Legend has it that King Arthur was born at the site, and&nbsp;archaeologists now say they've found evidence of a Dark Ages palace that dates to that time period.

Matt Cardy via Getty Images
The "Gallos" sculpture at the site of Tintagel Castle. Legend has it that King Arthur was born at the site, and archaeologists now say they've found evidence of a Dark Ages palace that dates to that time period.

An ancient palace was discovered at a site closely associated with the legend of King Arthur, and it’s shedding new light on life in Britain’s Dark Ages. It may even help play a role in determining if there’s any truth to the legend.

Four trenches dug at Tintagel Castle in Cornwall revealed the walls of buried buildings, including the thick walls of what is believed to have been a palace built between the 5th and 7th centuries.

“If nothing else, it means the legend about where Arthur was born isn’t so fanciful after all and deserves further investigation,” Phillips said. “It is going to start a whole new line of investigation by historians.”

Win Scutt of English Heritage told the BBC that the walls revealed what was a “very dense settlement” at the site.

“It’s a complex of buildings and many people since the 1980s have argued that it’s a royal centre, and that it’s the royal centre of the kingdom of Dumnonia,” Scutt was quoted as saying. “We haven’t found any others, so it’s quite possible that this was the center, and maybe they were static.”

The castle ruins at the site, a popular tourist attraction, date to roughly the 13th century, or well after the supposed time of Arthur, and a century after “History of the Kings of Britain” was written.

Although the castle may have been built to connect it to the legend, it’s not clear why Geoffrey of Monmouth chose the site in the first place.

“He associated Arthur closely with Cornwall, and Cornish legend may have preserved a folk memory of the earlier importance of the site, perhaps as a stronghold of the rulers of Cornwall,” the English Heritage website stated. “Geoffrey described its dramatic physical attributes, evidently appreciating its romantic nature.”

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The ruins of Tintagel Castle, built in the 13th century on a site closely linked with the legend of King Arthur.